An excerpt from a short explanation of how to do the Worldwide Guruyoga
given by Adriano Clemente August 9, 2019 at the Merigar West Gönpa
Good afternoon everybody. I want to explain very briefly how we are going to do this practice [Worldwide Guruyoga] tomorrow morning. In the last 10 or 15 years Chögyal Namkhai Norbu started to give the worldwide transmission three times a year. It was very important because at that time everybody in the world could receive an introduction to one’s primordial state through the webcast connection.
In general we say that in Dzogchen Teaching the main essence of the practice is to be continually in the state of what we call instant presence. This state of instant presence is not something we can understand or have experience of by reading books or listening to some explanations. We can gain access to this knowledge or recognition through one of the three main experiences: the experience of emptiness related to our mind, the experience of clarity which is related to our voice or energy, and the experience of pleasure or physical sensation which is related to our body. In this case, when the Master gave direct introduction it meant that he used one of these three experiences.
In the last 10 or 15 years Rinpoche very often used this introduction called yeshe sangthal, which means wisdom without obstruction and is related to the experience of emptiness. Another way of introducing through the experience of emptiness is the way that Rinpoche used to give the Worldwide Transmission using the sound of phat. When we did this Worldwide Transmission three times a year first we would visualize the Guru, empower this visualization, and then receive the four empowerments. This is what we always do in general even when we do the Ganapuja or Medium Tun. First of all we ask for blessing from the Guru, then we take the four empowerments, dissolve the Guru into ourselves after which we reach that state of unification with the guru called the state of guruyoga. In this way when Rinpoche was giving the direct transmission at that time after this unification Rinpoche would tell us to relax, not to follow thoughts, not to expect anything, then he would shout “phat” and in that moment we would try to recognize this state of instant presence. Rinpoche did this for many years and we received it many times.
Now of course we cannot do it that way because there is nobody who can give this direct transmission. Or even if there is somewhere, we still don’t know. So what we have to do now is we have to work with the same principle of transmission. We don’t have to think that now that Rinpoche has passed away and is no longer here we are left alone, we don’t know what to do, we are lost. That is the wrong view. Rinpoche’s transmission is alive and continuing in each of us, in some in a greater way, in some in a lesser way, but it is still continuing. So what we can do now is to continue working with the transmission as Rinpoche is still present with us, so we do the same invocation in the form of Guru Padmasambhava in this case. We do the same practice, only at the end since we cannot work now with the experience of emptiness, we have to work with the experience of clarity. That means that when we are doing unification with the OM A HUM, then we relax in that state with that clarity – we have the white OM, the red A and the blue HUM. We are in that presence, and then we relax and in that moment, turning inwardly, we observe our state and relax in instant presence. That is a very important point and is called the unification of the state of all practitioners. In that moment there can be great benefit for everyone. So that is how we should do the Worldwide Guruyoga tomorrow morning.
Drone photo of the Merigar West Gönpa by Elena Hill Ihilcik
